


After the End

by helsinkibaby



Category: Sleepy Hollow (TV)
Genre: Community: 1-million-words, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-11
Updated: 2015-01-11
Packaged: 2018-03-07 04:30:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3161306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the end is where life begins</p>
            </blockquote>





	After the End

**Author's Note:**

> For the weekend challenge at one_million_words. My prompt was "where life begins"

"So... what do we do now?"

Jenny turns to Frank, lifts an eyebrow as she lifts up her bottle of beer. "I don't know about you," she says, glancing over her shoulder to the front door of Corbin's cabin, "but I'm hoping Crane has some more beer in the fridge. I think we've earned it."

Frank returns her grin, clinks the top of his bottle against hers. "I'll drink to that," he says. When he speaks again, his voice is serious. "But what about tomorrow... and all the days after that?"

"You mean now that we don't have the End of Days to contend with?" Jenny takes a sip of her beer, tried to wrap her head around that concept. 

"No Horsemen, no apocalypse, no demons..." Frank's tone is a cross between relieved and amazed.  "Where do we go from here?"

"I don't know." It's only when she hears the words from her lips that Jenny realises that while she'd been shooting for bright and breezy, she'd missed by a mile. She'd sounded a lot more scared by the prospect than she'd ever let on to anyone, including herself. 

And of course, it happens in front of Frank Irving, a man who made his living getting to the bottom of things. Any hope she had that he'd missed it vanishes into the night sky when he leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "It's a big change for you," he says quietly and she laughs, even though it's not funny. 

"Half my life I've been fighting demons," she tells him, and she doesn't elaborate that she means both literally and metaphorically. He already knows. "Other twenty seven year olds, they're getting married, having kids, having careers, I've been doing this." Another laugh, another realisation that's not funny. "My longest relationship was with Hawley, which mostly revolved around sex and artifacts..." His eyes opened wide at that and she felt her cheeks burn. "Over share?"

His chuckle is deep and rumbling, makes her feel safe rather than embarrassed. Like she's in on the joke rather than the butt of it. "After all I've seen, I'm not sure there's such a thing any more." Then he's serious again. "And you've seen so much more than me."

He almost sounds like he admires that. Admires her.  "The woods, foster homes, juvie, Tarrytown..." she sighs. "Everything's been leading up to the last few days and the crazy thing is, I never had a plan for after. And now after is here." She presses her lips together. "I think I'm more scared now than ever."

Which is not, she tells herself, why she jumps when Frank's hand closes over hers. His touch is warm and comforting, makes her heart beat harder in her chest. "You get to have a life now," he tells her. "Make up for all those lost years." She can't speak suddenly and he must see that because he squeezes her fingers, says quietly, "I'd like to be around for that... if you'd let me."

The smile that breaks over her face is a surprise even to her, as is the surge of emotion that rises up in her throat. She thinks that this must be what it's like to be a kid on Christmas morning, discovering something amazing under the tree that you hadn't even asked for. Already short of speech, the idea that she could have this, that they could have this, robs her of her breath so that all she can do is nod. 

Frank smiles a smile she hasn't seen since that first Thanksgiving in his office. "So where we go from here is on a date?" he asks, like he wants to be sure. "I pick you up at your place in a nice suit, I bring you flowers, you're in a dress, we have dinner someplace fancy?"

Jenny's spent a lot of time lately thinking about Hell and Purgatory; that scenario sounds pretty close to Heaven. "Yes," she says and just like that, her life begins. 


End file.
